Capitalists Essay, Research Paper

Capitalists & Underdevelopment

In Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano the capitalist portrayal in Latin America is represented as the cause and effect of the present day problems in Latin America. The cause of poverty in Latin America is the more developed countries of the world; raping the land for the minerals, sugar and coffee.

The more developed world keeps Latin America in poverty for their own needs. If Latin America was not as poor as it is they probably would not sell their minerals, and other exports so cheep. The majority of the worlds sugar supply comes from Latin American countries, ever since this region of the world was first discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, the Lands and the people have been raped for everything they are worth.

Copper, zinc, bauxite, iron, nickel, tungsten, and chrome are all major imports into the United States. “About half of the American investment south of the Rio Grande are in the extraction of petroleum and minerals, indispensable for the US economy in both peace and war times.” The Americans are in great demand of these minerals, yet they still pay next to nothing for them; they pay between 1.5-4% of the sale value of theses minerals. In 1964 ” Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) could mine bauxite in Guyana, and sell it to itself for the same price as in 1938, although the price of aluminum had since soared.”

Minerals play an important role in Latin American politics. If a country does not give the States what they want for the price they want to pay, the leaders of that country will be overthrown or even assassinated, as was the case in 1964 with the fall of Cheddi Jagan’s socialist government in Guyana. “The CIA played a decisive role in Jagan’s defeat.” The world powers will do just about anything to keep Latin America under their control and power.

Sugar and coffee are two other major exports of most Latin American Countries. These exports are sold cheaply to American and other foreign investors. ” Each product has come to embody the fate of countries, regions, and peoples: and the mineral-producing communities have, of course, traveled the same melancholy road. The more a product is desired by the world market, the greater the misery it brings to the Latin American peoples whose sacrifice creates it.”Besides exploiting the people by the growth of sugar cane, and coffee; Investors push the land to hard that it becomes infertile rather quickly.

It would devastate the worlds economy if Latin America was not as poor as it is. The industrialized world relies on the misfortunes of other countries, thus having a need to keep all Latin American countries poor. There is a lot of money too be made by a select few in power, as long as the countries in the south cannot prosper and remain poor. Bibliography

Galeano Eduardo, Open veins of Latin America New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.